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Old 05-07-2018, 02:35 PM   #1
MattE303
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Mobile satellite dish setup

Just got a Winegard Pathway X2 and DISH Wally receiver for our Carbon toyhauler. TH has a coax jack labelled "Satellite Prep" in the convenience center, and each tv location (main living area and master bedroom) has 2 coax outlets. In the bedroom the outlets are actually labeled "satellite" and "cable/ant" or something similar. The main living area outlets aren't labeled, but pulling the panels and checking the coax jacket color at all 3 locations indicates that the second coax in the main living area should be satellite also.

I tested the system with the receiver connected directly to the dish to make sure everything worked. Next, hopeful, but not optimistic, I connect the dish to the convenience center "satellite prop" connection and the receiver to the 'satellite' connection in the main living area. As expected, nothing. Looking at the coax runs, it appears that they connected the two inside 'satellite' connections to the convenience center "satellite prep" input using a splitter that doesn't pass power. To make things worse, the splitter, rather than being located on the backside of the convenience center (where you could actually get at it) is buried somewhere deep inside the walls, not accessible without taking the rig apart. Good job on both counts Keystone!

I fixed the problem by replacing the installed coax with a 10 foot run of high quality quad shield RG6 that goes directly from the convenience center "satellite prep" input to the main living area coax output (no splitter) and it works great. We don't yet have a tv in the bedroom, but I'm looking at how best to route an HDMI cable to that location from where the receiver will be in the main living area when we do add the second tv.

Researching this a bit, it appears that there are splitters capable of passing power, and they're not expensive. Why would Keystone go to the trouble of putting in a complete "satellite prep" coax system, then not use the correct type of splitter, or locate it where it would be easy to access? makes no sense to me.

Another unfortunate thing I discovered is that the Wally receiver forces the mobile dish to go through it's satellite 'search' routine from scratch every time it powers up, even if the dish hasn't been moved and doesn't really need to start all over. I really wish DISH had designed the mobile dish startup screen to optionally skip this step when it isn't actually necessary. To work around the problem, I'm thinking of powering the receiver from a small (maybe 400 watt?) inverter run off the battery, so the receiver itself will stayed powered up all the time and we don't have to go through the entire 10 minute satellite search routine every time we start the generator to watch TV. Anyone else done something similar?
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Old 05-07-2018, 07:36 PM   #2
Supertommy68
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I have a wally as well, just got it. Spent 2 hours on the phone with dish trying to figure out why it wasn't working. Finally wired the tailgator direct to the receiver and bamm, great reception, but still had to wait 10 mins every time it powered down. Tested both "sat prep" jacks in every way possible to the bedroom, living room and garage tvs, all say "open" (not working). I have no idea where to look for a splitter, nor why they would install one in the first place (echoing your sentiment). I've had this new Raptor less than 30 days. Wish I could be more help. If you figure it out let me know
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Old 05-07-2018, 08:10 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by Supertommy68 View Post
I have a wally as well, just got it. Spent 2 hours on the phone with dish trying to figure out why it wasn't working. Finally wired the tailgator direct to the receiver and bamm, great reception, but still had to wait 10 mins every time it powered down. Tested both "sat prep" jacks in every way possible to the bedroom, living room and garage tvs, all say "open" (not working). I have no idea where to look for a splitter, nor why they would install one in the first place (echoing your sentiment). I've had this new Raptor less than 30 days. Wish I could be more help. If you figure it out let me know
sorry, maybe my post wasn't clear. I didn't really expect the wiring Keystone did to work properly, so I didn't waste much time on it, other than to confirm that it didn't work right. My system worked perfectly as soon as I replaced Keystone's craptastic wiring with my own direct run from the convenience center to the living room. I just unhooked their wiring from the existing wall plates and replaced it with own; a single run of good quality quad shield RG6 coax with no splitters. My receiver will always be located in the living room so I don't care about the "satellite prep" connectors in the other rooms, I'll never need them.

Eventually I will put a TV in the bedroom, but when I do, I'll run HDMI from the living room to the bedroom so the receiver can stay in the living room.
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Old 07-29-2018, 11:07 AM   #4
RaptorGirl
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How did you run the new cable?

Our unit is sealed off. We believe there has to be a splitter somewhere but we can't locate it, no can we get to anything underneath. How do you run a new cable? I really don't want satellite cables coming through my doors & windows. Why doesn't Keystone just do it right. Geez, we paid enough for it.
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Old 07-29-2018, 04:10 PM   #5
Supertommy68
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So initially I called keystone and they were very nice. She sent me a wiring diagram that shows a splitter behind the living room TV. Mine was actually in the ceiling above the bedroom tv by the antenna jack/booster. You take that out and then there is a boatload of wire behind it in the ceiling. I actually had 2 splitters up there. The one on the input side went to the wet box “sat prep” jack. I tied it directly to the one that went to the main tv, no splitter. Then I found another one, on the “out” side of the splitter, that went to the other “sat prep” jack in the wet box. I wired it directly to the bedroom tv ( no splitter) so I can either hook up the dish to the bedroom or the living room. The garage is out of luck unless I run another cable. I took a photo of the wire mess hope it comes through
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Old 07-30-2018, 09:21 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RaptorGirl View Post
Our unit is sealed off. We believe there has to be a splitter somewhere but we can't locate it, no can we get to anything underneath. How do you run a new cable? I really don't want satellite cables coming through my doors & windows. Why doesn't Keystone just do it right. Geez, we paid enough for it.
I wrote a detailed post on how to do it in our Carbon (it really wasn't hard), your Raptor may be similar:
http://www.keystoneforums.com/forums...14&postcount=5

I did later run the mentioned HDMI cable from the entertainment center to the bedroom:
http://www.keystoneforums.com/forums...6&postcount=15
.
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Old 07-31-2018, 03:47 PM   #7
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Weird.
Ours looked pretty straight forward. I had a bad coax Jack in the 'wetbox' which I replaced the entire panel of 3 jacks and as well as the wall plate in there.
Funny though, the wetbox wall plate was an indoor style and not a waterproof covered one. Kinda sucks they did that way. However the Cable Prep Jack IS a waterproof covered one.
I also had to enlarge the hole behind the wall plate so that all 2 Sat Prep coax cables were no longer squished as they did it.

But, the 3 Sat Prep coax cables are 3 colors.....White, Gray and Tan. And the corresponding colors are found in Bedroom, Living and Garage. They actually matched up too! Amazed
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Old 07-31-2018, 04:00 PM   #8
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Weird.
Ours looked pretty straight forward. I had a bad coax Jack in the 'wetbox' which I replaced the entire panel of 3 jacks and as well as the wall plate in there.
Funny though, the wetbox wall plate was an indoor style and not a waterproof covered one. Kinda sucks they did that way. However the Cable Prep Jack IS a waterproof covered one.
I also had to enlarge the hole behind the wall plate so that all 2 Sat Prep coax cables were no longer squished as they did it.

But, the 3 Sat Prep coax cables are 3 colors.....White, Gray and Tan. And the corresponding colors are found in Bedroom, Living and Garage. They actually matched up too! Amazed
Sounds like other than the bad coax jack, they actually did yours correctly (3 separate, straight runs, one to each location with no splitters). Maybe they finally realized all the customer support calls and dealer retrofits were costing them more than just doing it right in the first place!

What year and model is your trailer?
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Old 07-31-2018, 04:30 PM   #9
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Haha, don't give them too much credit. There's still tons of shortcuts and what'da'fuq's
It's a 2016 Fuzion 420
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Old 08-07-2018, 11:15 AM   #10
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Since you might be new to the "pay as you go" DISH setup, if that is what you have, when your ready to stop using it, don't pay the next bill they send you. As long as you don't turn it on past the end date of what you payed for, they will reverse that last charge.

Its the weirdest pay as you go thing as I've ever saw, took us awhile to figure it out. That and the way the DISH controller works, guides work, power resets. Ugh.

Oh and if its off for long enough, they will essentially delete your online account. SO if you use it 2 months of the year, by the time you go back to turn it on, you will likely have to make a new account. Keep that account number handy and make sure they know you have an RV account.

This last time I turned it on, I had one rep ask me 5 separate times on an online chat if it was an RV account. Now on the 6th time as I was typing in, "if you ask me is this is an RV account one more..." he stops and goes "oh i'm sorry about asking, I see you do have an RV account". I don't know if they can read what you type as you type it, but I was about ready to break the keyboard. LOL
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Old 08-07-2018, 02:57 PM   #11
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Originally Posted by {tpc} View Post
Since you might be new to the "pay as you go" DISH setup, if that is what you have, when your ready to stop using it, don't pay the next bill they send you. As long as you don't turn it on past the end date of what you payed for, they will reverse that last charge.

Its the weirdest pay as you go thing as I've ever saw, took us awhile to figure it out. That and the way the DISH controller works, guides work, power resets. Ugh.

Oh and if its off for long enough, they will essentially delete your online account. SO if you use it 2 months of the year, by the time you go back to turn it on, you will likely have to make a new account. Keep that account number handy and make sure they know you have an RV account.

This last time I turned it on, I had one rep ask me 5 separate times on an online chat if it was an RV account. Now on the 6th time as I was typing in, "if you ask me is this is an RV account one more..." he stops and goes "oh i'm sorry about asking, I see you do have an RV account". I don't know if they can read what you type as you type it, but I was about ready to break the keyboard. LOL
Not sure who you were responding to, but if it's me, we don't use the "pay as you go" service; we have DISH at home and when we're not on the road, the Wally receiver is connected to a fixed dish for use in the shop, so we just pay the $7/month for it year round.
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Old 08-18-2018, 03:12 PM   #12
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Not sure this is an issue for you but the antenna booster in the cabinet above the bed has to be turned off for the satt to work properly. If yours has an antenna booster...
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